This page aims to help you uninstall TheBrowser. These TheBrowser removal instructions work for Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer and Safari, as well as every version of Windows.

First, Uninstall TheBrowser

TheBrowser is a malicious application belonging to the Adware threat family. In general Adware is characterized by the large amount of unwanted Advertisement it displays in the internet browsers (primarily Chrome and Firefox) of infected computers and TheBrowser is no exception to the rule. The Ads will be injected into every page and they will also slow down your computer, as your CPU has to first download and then render them on your screen – thus delaying the display of the page that you yourself want to see.

Fortunately Adware applications have among the lowest threat level among malicious software, but this doesn’t change the fact that you should uninstall TheBrowser as soon as possible for your machine. If left for an extended period of time it will not only annoy you via its Ads, but it could also try to install other Adware or even more serious viruses. Again, to emphasize: removing it should be your top priority.

How was your PC infected with TheBrowser?

Adware like TheBrowser uses social engineering and software bundle tricks to infect computers. It will pretend to be some useful free program that you want to install or alternatively it will be sneaked in by an installer for such a program. In order to avoid such unpleasant surprises in the future we strongly recommend that you forget about using the Default installation options for most programs – only trust those you’ve already installed and are certain that will contain nothing troublesome.

Instead use Advanced. A couple of clicks on the next button will get you exactly the same result as if using Default, but in the meantime you should pass through a screen that will inform you where and what exactly will be installed on your PC. Deny access to any addition program that you don’t know or need. Erring on the safe side here is recommended, because I’m sure you dan’t want to end with a virus to uninstall. You will always get the main program in the end. Installers for free programs are more likely to contain extra programs and it’s even more likely that those programs could be Adware similar to TheBrowser. It’s best to stay away from them altogether, so don’t install them.

Keep away from the Ads offered by TheBrowser

The primary goal of TheBrowser is to display Ads and that’s what it does. As mentioned before, Chrome and Firefox are especially susceptible to this thing, so be extra careful if you use them. Unfortunately the quality control of what Ads are getting displayed is very low for most Adware applications. It is highly possible that at least some of the Ads you see are actually dangerous and will mislead you into downloading virus-infected software or attempt to trick you into buying useless bloatware applications that do nothing. And these are always much easier to get on your PC than to remove them from it. Bloatware is known for it’s ability to generate fake or grossly exaggerated problem reports in order to make the user believe his computer has a serious problem and is in need of assistance of “professional” help. If you are seeing any such message in the Ads ignore it – there is no such thing as an online scanner that can scan your computer without your permission and discover “threats.”

SUMMARY:

Name

TheBrowser

Type

Adware

Danger Level

Medium. It can have persisting effects on your system, but it is mostly passive, trying to subvert you into installing other viruses.

Symptoms

A variety of glitches and a slowness that will plague you until you uninstall the thing. Advertisements and search results that lead to unsafe websites.

All of your internet browsers likely have TheBrowser attached to them. If you’ve successfully enabled Safe Mode in step one it is time to start removing TheBrowser itself. In order to do that follow the instructions outlined in Step 2 and Step 3 of this guide. Repeat them for every browser currently installed on your machine. If TheBrowser tries to pop any confirmation messages that also offer you addition free software or that you visit a page to complete a survey be on your guard. Most probably this is another attempt to install something annoying or dangerous on your machine and you are best off ignoring any such offers.

Remove the Malware from Internet Explorer:

Open IE, then click —–> Manage Add-ons.

Find TheBrowser . Remove it by pressing Disable.

If your Home Page is different from the usual, click —–> Internet Options>edit the URL box with your preferred search engine, and click Apply.

You are now in the Control Panel. Search around for TheBrowser and suspicious-looking programs. Uninstall it/them. Also, be extremely careful. Viruses often spend one last ditch effort to trick you into installing more of their kind. If you see a screen like this when you click Uninstall, choose NO:

Hold the Start Keyand R again – butthis time copy +paste the following and click OK:

notepad %windir%/system32/Drivers/etc/hosts

A .txt file will open – don’t type or change it. If you are hacked and someone has access to your PC, there will be a bunch of other IPs connected to you at the bottom. This is what a hosts file looks like:

If there are a bunch of strange IPs connecting to you below “Localhost” you may be hacked, and it’s best to ask us in the comments for directions.

Open the Task Managerby right clicking on the Taskbar and choosing Start Task Manager.

Once it opens, choose the Processes Tab. Look at all of the processes in front of you and try to determine which ones are a virus. Google them or ask us in the comments and we will provide the best assistance we can.

A BIG WARNING HERE! READ THIS BEFORE PROCEEDING!

This is perhaps the most important and difficult step, so will need to be extremely careful. You are going to delete some files related to TheBrowser, but double check any file before deleting it. If you mistake files of TheBrowser with useful system files you run the risk of damaging your OS or other programs significantly. If you are not feeling comfortable, we advise you toinstead give the TheBrowser remover we recommend a try. If you decide to do that you may also find the scanner highly useful in discovering any other viruses that TheBrowser might have sneaked in into your PC /or were laying dormant from before/.

Right click on each of the virus processes separately and select Open File Location. Also, End the process after you open the folder. Just to make sure we don’t delete any programs you mistakenly took for a virus, copy the folders somewhere, then delete the directories you were sent to.

Take a look at the following things:

Type msconfig in the search field and hit enter: you will be transported to a Pop Up window.

Go in the Startup tab and Uncheck entries that have “Unknown” as Manufacturer.

Type Regedit in the windows search field and press Enter.

Once inside, press CTRL and F together and type the virus’s Name. Right click and delete any entries you find with a similar name. If you can’t find them this way, look in these directories, and delete/uninstall the registries manually:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER—-Software—–Random Directory. It could be any one of them – ask us if you can’t discern which ones are malicious, but bear in mind they are always different.HKEY_CURRENT_USER—-Software—Microsoft—-Windows—CurrentVersion—Run– RandomHKEY_CURRENT_USER—-Software—Microsoft—Internet Explorer—-Main—- Random

Remove these immediately. They are all part of the virus. Tell me after if this fixed your problem. 🙂 (I hope it does!)

Ziro

Unfortunately, the fix was very temporary and short-lived.
After deleting the addresses and saving the file, everything appeared to be fine. After booting back out of Safe mode, however, the issues amplified.
We’re considering resorting to a factory reset, keeping important files and programs on a separate drive.

HowToRemove.Guide Team

Before you do anything, I suggest you download the scanner from one of our ads. It should help you track down the infected files and you can just delete them manually. 🙂

Renai Sance

Hi, like guy below, I have several addresses under the local host area:

[EDITED]

A couple of them are repeated in the list. You mentioned deleting them on the previous response….should I do this?

UPDATE: Wow, I just realized that they are the exact same ones the previous poster mentioned.

HowToRemove.Guide Team

Delete all of them, they are part of the infection 🙂

HowToRemove.Guide Team

Hello Dewayne,

You can delete them in the same way you delete anything else. Don’t forget to save the file after you delete them.